Then wide receiver Jeremy Maclin and cornerback Bradley Fletcher did the same thing Monday, the second straight day the Eagles had a fight at practice. This one came in front of nearly 15,000 fans at Lincoln Financial Field.

Cornerback Cary Williams, for one, couldn't have been happier.

Last year in training camp, Williams criticized the defense for lacking toughness. Then he demonstrated what he meant by fighting a New England Patriots player in a joint practice last August, followed a few weeks later with a fight against teammate Riley Cooper.

"I'm glad, to be honest with you," Williams said of Monday's fight. "You're not supposed to be friendly. When you come out to camp, there are no friends, although you try to look out for your brother. You're fighting for jobs, you're fighting for opportunities. When those situations arise, especially defenders, we're letting them know that we're not having that. We want to be the most physical defense we possibly can. That's been showing up these last two days.

"If it was up to me, [fighting in practice] would be normal. I don't think you're supposed to go through camp with no fights, in my opinion."

Williams seemed to regret that he hasn't been one of the combatants yet.

"Oh, mine's coming," he said with a laugh.

Unlike the fight Sunday between Cole and McCoy, which was mostly pushing and shoving, Fletcher and Maclin were throwing punches before they were separated. The incident happened during the final team drill, when Fletcher broke up a pass intended for Maclin, who then shoved Fletcher.

The practice was the Eagles' first in full pads. Maclin wouldn't comment after practice.

Fletcher gave his version of the events.

"We're just playing ball," he said. "Emotions got going and one thing led to another. ... We get the pads on, we get a lot of contact going on. Emotions get going, things happen and you just keep going to the next day."

Eagles coach Chip Kelly had said in the past that he's not a fan of fights during practice. On Monday, he didn't seem to mind.

"Those things happen," Kelly said. "I think the fact that it made 'SportsCenter' must have meant it's the world's slowest sports day, I can tell you that. Two kids push each other in practice somewhere. It's not a real big deal."

Williams said there won't be any lingering animosity among his teammates.

"As soon as we get off the field, we're buddy-buddy," he said. "You can't take this into the locker room or into the next day. I mean, you may take it into the next day and try to beat him up top. That's how you get him back."

The most important thing about the fights, Williams said, is making sure that no one gets hurt. That's why he said he was proud of Fletcher's decision to go for Maclin's body. Maclin seemed to do the same thing.

"The thing is, you got to understand, you're not swinging to hurt the guy," Williams said. "They got on helmets, man. You've got to understand you've got to protect your hand. It's common sense. ... You're not trying to kill your hand. If you break your hand in a fight, you gotta be an idiot.

"You're going to have those skirmishes and stuff. That's a part of practice. Maclin wasn't going to back down, either. That's great. We want to make sure we're physical on both sides of the ball."